The First Generation: Blink & Mush's Story
by Banisters
Summary: Before Blink and Mush hooked up with Jack and the other newsies, they had a tough time working in factories and dealing with their families. Rated T for mild language, violence, and brief sexual content.
1. The Accident

_Kid Blink peered through his tired eyes and strained his neck over the machine. His eyelids fluttered every few seconds as exhaustion tried to consume his body, but Blink refused to be swallowed._

"_Jeremy, just 20 more minutes and we're outta here," Mush announced._

_Blink yawned. "I know, Alex…" He stopped to yawn again. "I'm tryin' to stay awake."_

_Mush smiled sleepily at Blink and leaned over his machine. Mush didn't think it was so bad printing papers, but like Blink, he'd rather be out roaming the city and selling them. Blink sighed and stood up, then added more ink to the main machine, located several feet away. The machine seemed to stutter and choke on the ink._

"_What the…?" Mush asked._

"_Cripes. Damn machine better not be broken…" Blink grumbled._

"_Ya better fix it before Paul gets back," Mush advised._

"_Nah, ya think?"_

_Blink tilted his body against the machine and firmly placed his feet under a steel bar connected to it. He closed his right eye and moved pieces of the machine aside, squinting inside to search for the problem._

"_Hurry up!"_

"_Shut up, Alex!"_

_Mush jostled Blink's shoulder to try and look at what had caused the machine to screw up._

"_Get off me, I'm gonna slip, ya idiot!" Blink barked._

"_WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" screamed Paul, the printing manager. Alarmed by his boss's voice, Mush fell backwards and landed on the floor. Blink, who's head was in part of the machine, shot up, and banged his skull on a large switch. Ink shot out of the machine from a small tube and into Blink's left eye._

"_Aw shit!"_

_With both his eyes closed, Blink tried to pull himself out of the machine. He didn't notice the sharp needle near his ink-blinded eye. He twitched his head slightly and suddenly felt his eye being stabbed._

"_Agggghhh!" he cried._

"_Ya alright!" Mush yelled as he stood up. He placed his hands on Blink's back and helped him get out of the machine. Paul, aggravated by the two, walked away._

"_When you get cleaned up, come see me…" he growled._

"_What's with ya eye?" Mush asked as Blink groaned and clawed at his eye. "Move ya hand!"_

"_Can't…" Blink breathed._

"_Move your damn hand!"_

_Blink slowly pulled away his hand, which was covered in ink, tears, and blood. _

"_Open ya eye!"_

"_I can't, Alex!"_

"_Aw cripes, just do it!"_

"_I CAN'T!"_

_Mush inched his fingers toward Blink's eye, then gingerly opened it while Blink swore and tried to fight him._

"_Aw man…"_

"_Is it bad?"_

"_Jeremy…Can you see outta your eye?"_

"_Nah…"_

_Mush cringed at the sight. Blink's eye was bleeding vigorously, and the white of it was black from the ink. _

"_Oh gosh…we gotta get this cleaned…"_

_Paul walked over to them again. His face looked impatient._

"_First you break my machine, and now ya hurt yaself! You two fools aren't helping this company at all. You're fired!"_

Blink touched his leather eye patch, while looking at Mush with his good eye.

"Ya mind takin a look at it for me?"

Mush shrugged, this was a daily routine. Blink had refused to look at his eye, even 3 months after the accident. Mush lifted the eye patch and examined the eye. It was still protected by Blink's forever swollen eyelids, but Mush didn't feel like looking at it anymore.

"If I lied and said it looks great, what would you think, Jeremy?"

"Well, I wouldn't think, I'd just punch ya, Alex"

"Then your eye looks utterly awful" Mush said with a smile.

"Thanks…" Blink said dryly.


	2. There Ain't Time For Stagefright

Blink and Mush were utterly disgusted with their living conditions. They were staying in an orphanage, one with a very low budget. They didn't mind most of the other kids, but the fact they all the children were at least three years younger than them was aggravating. Blink couldn't stand the kids; they were always shouting and trying to pick a fight with him to prove themselves. Mush, on the other hand, wasn't bothered as much as Blink, but all the kids sadly reminded him of better days.

_Mush climbed into the pew while humming softly in harmony with the chorus surrounding him. He was dressed in fine clothes, his hair was combed, and his shoes were polished. It was a casual Sunday morning for Mush, but he never saw it as ordinary. He admired the stained glass windows and warm glow of the candles. What Mush really liked about church was attending Sunday school with Kid Blink._

_Mush sat down with his parents as the room was hushed into a prayer. Mush opened one of his eyes and glanced at Blink, who was looking uninterested in praying. To tell the truth, Mush was as well. While people began murmuring their questions to God, Mush slipped out of his pew and over to Blink's. He jerked his head to the left, his non-verbal way of asking Blink if he wanted to leave. Blink nodded, and tiptoed over to Mush. They snuck down the aisle together, just barely gliding out the door before everyone opened their eyes._

"_Ha! That was easy!" Mush giggled._

"_Mm-hmm…Now what?" _

"_I dunno…Uh…"_

_The talking ceased, but the two started walking behind the church to avoid being caught._

"_Oh!" Mush said suddenly._

"_What?"_

"_My birthday is in two days! I'm gonna be eight!"_

"_Lucky! Mine is in February…"_

"_Two months?"_

"_Yep!"_

_When they finished talking, they found themselves at the cemetery. Both of them were never frightened by it, but simply depressed. Mush felt light headed and hollow as he and Blink approached a grave. Blink stared at it, and Mush put his arm around him._

"_I can't believe he's gone…" Blink mumbled._

"_Yeah…"Mush answered vacantly, unsure of how to respond to his friend's grief. Mush never appreciated how Blink would go to his dad's grave while they were having a happy conversation. It had only been five months earlier when Blink's dad was murdered. He'd been walking by a bar, when he was attacked by a drunk. He was beaten to death, and his body was found later that night, decorated by bruises and slashes. No one found out the identity of the murderer, but Blink swore that he'd find him someday._

Mush rubbed his forehead, in hopes of making the memory fade away. He remembered all too well when Blink had vowed to kill the man who attacked his dad. Mush, in fact, was often filled with loathing for whoever had put such a dent in Blink's life, and had promised to support Blink in searching for the murderer.

"Ya wanna relax a bit, Alex? You're makin' me tense…" Blink blurted out.

"What? Oh…Sorry. I guess I'm just nervous about this new job"

"Sure as hell, ya are. But look on the bright side, ya birthday's in two days…"

"Huh? It is?"

"Yeah, bonehead. You're gonna be thirteen"

"Oh…yeah…"

"Ya sure you're alright?"

"Um…Yeah…"

Blink cast a skeptical look at Mush, then rolled his eyes.

"Act two, Scene four, Jeremy and Alex attempt to get a new job…"

"I just hope the play of yours gets a good review…" Mush joked.

"It all depends on the two star performers…" Blink said seriously.


End file.
